7 Breastfeeding Tips That Every Mum Needs To Know

Breastfeeding is a wonderful, magical thing. Feeding your baby with liquid gold that you made yourself? Well that all sounds too good to be true.

The truth of the matter is, breastfeeding can be really hard work too. Not Mummy and baby “take” to it immediately. It is a skill to be learned.

Having breastfed all 4 of my children until the recommended “into the second year”, I have picked up a trick or two to make the whole process easier. Read on for tips and tricks to make you’re breastfeeding journey go smoothly, or scroll to the bottom of the post to watch me talking about all of these tips in a Facebook Live video.

Quench That Thirst

If you have ever breast fed before you, will know what I mean about this. You sit down to feed the baby,the baby latches on and BAM! Thirst strikes. It’s like instant desert mouth, like all of your hang overs have come at once. It’s clever old Mother Nature reminding us to drink up and replace all of the fluid that we are pouring into our tiny humans. The answer? Always have water on hand. Everywhere. Every time you feed.

Generally, water bottles as opposed to glasses of water are the answer. Using bottles means you avoid messy spillages where you are feeding (which will often be in bed). I used to buy in packs of bottled water and leave bottles wherever I was likely to stop and feed. After lots of very bad press about the negative health impacts of disposable water bottles, I invested in some reusable water bottles. On top of being better for the environment, cheaper than constantly buying bottled water and free of the health risks posed by the plastic alternatives, they also keep your water cold for up to 24 hours. This means that your bottles can be filled up and left wherever you feed, providing you with chilled, refreshing hydration whenever you need it.

Stock Up On One Handed Food

When you have just given birth, often sleep becomes more of a priority than eating. Couple this with the fact that you will have a baby attached to your boob for a large portion of the day, there is a time straight after the birth when eating “normal” food is not as easy as it sounds. My answer to this was to stock up on things that can be eaten with one hand.

My postnatal food of choice was pate on toast. Not only was this a real treat as you are not allowed pate during the 9 months of pregnancy, but being an iron rich food, it really helped me at a time where I was quite anaemic and still losing a lot of blood. Another favourite was peanut butter on toast with sliced apple, another tasty one handed food, and this one is a real source of protein.

Is Your Baby Getting A Meal Or A Snack?

Although breastfeeding is essentially baby led, it is still important to make sure that your baby is not just getting enough, but enough of the right sort of breast milk. Lots of babies, newborns especially, can fall into a snacking habit, which can cause problems such as;

weight gain is sure, which can in some cases lead to failure to thrive.

never sleeping for a block of time, but instead feeding on and off around the clock. This can have an impact not just on Mum and Dad, but on the whole family.

Line Up Some Entertainment Keep You Awake

As I discussed in my post Binge Worthy TV Shows To Watch While Breastfeeding, TV streaming services such as NOW TV & Netflix have been my very best friends during night feeds. Rather than treating the night feed as a chore, viewing it as a lovely opportunity to cuddle your baby and catch up on some amazing and addictive TV series really made the whole process easier. A simple shift in perspective can make such a difference.

Express Yourself

Expressing breast milk has SO many wonderful benefits, including;

stimulating supply

creating an emergency stash in your freezer

helping clear mastitis

giving you a break, allowing someone else to feed your baby

I would highly recommend “double pumping” where possible. Not only does it save loads of time by expressing from both greats simultaneously, but it also boosts supply far more than it would than expressing breasts consecutively. I used the Medela breast pumps which were fantastic. For more information & tips about expressing, check out my Top Tips For Expressing Breastmilk.

Record Keeping

Now this is a divisive topic. For some people, the idea of tracking their baby’s feeds, nappies & sleep sounds like something stressful when they are already busy. Some claim that it makes them paranoid about the exact amounts that baby is getting.

For me, however, tracking these important things about your baby has always been important for a number of reasons. Check out my post all about the App That Helps Me Breastfeed where I explain why I love it.

Co Sleeping Crib

Night feeds can be so much easier when you can keep your baby close to you. Although it may seem easier to just place baby in bed with you, current guidelines suggest that the best place for the baby to sleep for the first 6 months in on their own mattress, rather than sharing yours, but in the room with you. An ideal comprise is a “co sleeping crib” which safely atatches to your bed. I have found that this is an ideal way to keep baby close enough to you that night feeding and resettling is as easy as it can be.

As your baby gets old enough, your breastfeeding issues will move from trying to keep your baby awake long enough to get a full enough feed, to getting them to pay attention long enough to get a full feed.

A good way of keeping baby entertained yet still on talk when they get to that age where they are very distracted, is a breastfeeding necklace. It gives them something to fiddle with during a feed, and may just save your skin from your baby’s finger nails from digging into your skin. (Yes, one of my children’s favourite pastimes during feeds has always been pinching my skin). These necklaces also double up as great teething toys which are always to hand for baby to play with while you hold them as you wear they necklace.

What Are Your Breastfeeding Top Tips?

What have you discovered that has helped you most along your breastfeeding journey? Please share your tips in the comments.

Disclosure – post contains affiliate links

Comments 18

Yes on the entertainment. I loaded up our DVR during those newborn days. I know it is important to bond and pay attention to our babies when they are nursing, but especially during those late nights having something mindless to watch and keep me awake was so helpful! #wanderingwednesday

There are some great tips here. I used to carry everything around with me in a tote bag. The only annoyance was when I couldn’t reach for the remote control and I was holding a sleeping baby. Thanks for linking up at #fortheloveofBLOG. Claire x

I just lost a really long reply. 🙁
But to summarise (I had a rocky start, fed past 3 years and ended up co-ordinating the local feeding cafe/support meeting) PLEASE PLEASE don’t self-diagnose snacking/foremilk/hindmilk theory. I have never met a trained professional (either as a patient or volunteering or campaigning) who feels it’s something that should be self managed, as the ‘simple’ theory is outdated, there are other factors (e.g. one baby can get a whole feed in 2 min, another could take an hour!) and the number one reason we saw for low supply was women trying to time feeds themselves and going too long too early – so their body thought their baby didn’t need it.

I personally made that mistake. I should have had the helplines stuck to my fridge, or gone to a local group first. Combined with an app (which gave some terrible advice in little pop ups!) I got myself stressed and it cost my child weight gain.
Turned out I was (un)fortunate enough to have a frequent feeder with a powerful suck. She would empty me every 2 hours, and spacing her out was just halving her food sadly.

Thanks for your reply, and sorry you lost your long reply, it’s a nightmare where that happens.

I totally agree that every baby is different and couldn’t agree more that having help if you are worried or struggling is just essential. I was lucky enough to be referred on to a breastfeeding specialist who held my hand through a difficult time she my second son (baby 2/4) became a really fussy feeder and his weight gain suffered. She changed my point of view from trying to feed as frequently as possible to trying to feed more at each feed to reach the hind milk. I think at the time I was just happy to stop feeding him when he appeared to be “done” and she helped me encouraged him to feed longer at each feed, which had a fantastic impact on both his weight gain and sleep patterns. She didn’t say that he had to go longer between feed, but it happened naturally as he was able to take more per “sitting”.

I would never suggest that a hungry baby shouldn’t be fed, just that maybe as a new Mum I took “baby led” just a little too literally. I didn’t realise at the time that sometimes they need a little encouragement to keep going with a feed, especially when they are young and sleepy.

I think you’re right, help numbers are SO important, and perhaps I should pop some on the end of the post / on another post and link to them.

Ah I miss the days of being able to settle down for a nap or a tv show and enjoy some peace and quiet whilst breastfeeding. I really miss breastfeeding and the thought of never doing it again breaks my heart a little 🙁 Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging

I breastfed both girls but currently breastfeeding a 10 month old who is very distracted. I don’t want her to wean I want to go over a year with this. I’ve read that women have been able to go 2 years. Was your babies distracted and not staying on the breast long? Is that just a phase they go through or is that weaning? My first weaned at about 9 months.

Yes, as babies become toddlers, they become very distracted. If you have seen my Instagram stories, you will see Zara, now 21 months, doing what can only be described as gymnastics while feeding. Hang in there xx

Follow Mummy of Four on Twitter

Search Mummy Of Four

Search Mummy Of Four

Categories

Mummy Of Four uses cookies (the boring internet kind, not the yummy kind) to ensure that you get the best experience on the website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNoRead more